The world’s largest smartphone maker, Samsung Electronics, today said it was considering a stock split that would placate existing investors and attract new ones with a more affordable share price.
Head of investor relations Robert Yi said the South Korean tech giant had been looking into a possible split “for a while” but was still debating the benefits of such a move.
“We know it would have a psychological impact, but need to look further at how that might affect the company’s long-term value,” Yi told reporters.
Samsung has been under growing pressure to boost shareholder returns as its stock price has been battered by a series of quarterly profit falls.
Samsung shares were trading on Tuesday at 1.356 million won ($1,250) compared to a high of 1.470 million won in June last year.
Samsung is currently in the middle of a $2.0-billion share buyback process announced in November to appease disgruntled shareholders.
With a market capitalisation of about $185 billion, Samsung accounts for nearly 17 per cent of the weighting on South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI composite index.